Community

Community

It looks different now.

Community used to be our students being greeted by name each morning by Mrs. Blue as the entered the elementary campus, 7^th and 8^th graders eating lunch together – laughing, sharing, encouraging, ECA families and friends packing the gym to cheer our sports teams on to a win and sometimes sharing the collective heartbreak of loss.  It looked like a student surprising Miss Keith with a coffee in the morning, a group of moms gathered in the elementary parking lot after morning drop off to just “catch up” and encourage one another in the journey, parents volunteering to give elementary teachers a break at lunchtime by spending time in the classroom, birthday celebrations, art shows, encouraging notes on lockers, morning devotions in the classroom, teachers taking the time to look students in the eye to let them know they are seen and cared for.

It looks different now.

That doesn’t mean that we don’t have a vibrant and thriving ECA community. We are made to be with others. To serve others. To care for and encourage others. To be lifted up by others.  To be reminded by others how much our God loves us. To rely on others. To be relied on.

Many of us have been on the receiving end of a loving, generous, thoughtful, and encouraging ECA community. I know I have. Our community is precious.  Our community loves BIG. Every student and family member is an important part of that community and we need one another even when (especially when) we can’t be together.

Let’s stick together and continue to grow as a community that loves the Lord. This is our time to find new ways to be a community that thrives.

^“I thank my God every time I remember you. ⁴ In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy ⁵ because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, ⁶ being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”  Philippians 1:3-6